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Sydney (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Very nice picture. Who has done? What is his name?

Śyāmasundara: Vaibhavī?

Prabhupāda: Vaibhavī? Oh. (indistinct) This is very fine.

Bhūrijana: When you were in Sydney last time, not this time, these were the pictures that they used, these two over here. And then they sent them to us.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja is very attractive.

Prabhupāda: So have kīrtana, yes. (break)

Śyāmasundara: We have one hour extra because they've moved up... (break)

Prabhupāda: From?

Guest (1): Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Bombay.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can make drawing.

Cintāmaṇi: Make a sketch of this end...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And in front a temple, high arches, big temple. I will give you the photo. Where is the photo?

Śyāmasundara: I have negatives. I have to get some photos made.

Prabhupāda: No, you got some photos made?

Śyāmasundara: That other boy in Sydney, Śyāmalālānanda, he has.

Prabhupāda: Anyone takes, but he sleeps. He doesn't deliver. I wanted to send immediately to Bombay.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: In Sydney also we have got temple.

Guest (1): (indistinct) Where?

Devotee: I can show you.

Prabhupāda: Australia's, find Australia's...

Guest (1): Australia, never. Only my younger brother....

Prabhupāda: Australia, Sydney.

Devotee: We have a temple in Sydney, Australia.

Guest (1): And Edinburgh?

Devotee: 823 Hereford Street.

Guest (1): Yes, sir. So you have been already...

Prabhupāda: You become one of the life members of our society and you can go anywhere and stay there.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Mr. Wadell: No, I mean even in the physical realm. I cannot at this moment conceive what it is like, say, to be in Sydney, in many cities in the world. There are many things, many bits of knowledge which I cannot have. I cannot be everywhere at once. I am here now. I do not even know what is happening in the place from which I have come.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Wadell: And I must accept that. I cannot be certain about that. Would you not agree?

Prabhupāda: But if there is a process... Suppose you are not in Sydney, but if there is a radio message from Sydney, how do you accept it?

Mr. Wadell: Oh, well, I'd believe it.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Then that is a question of belief.

Mr. Wadell: But that is not... Belief is not quite the same thing as...

Prabhupāda: No that is not belief; that is fact. Suppose a radio message is coming from Sydney, we accept it-fact. Although I am not in Sydney. So it is a question of process, how to receive the message. If the process is perfect, then the message is perfect.

Mr. Wadell: But one has to believe the...

Prabhupāda: Yes, if the process is perfect, one has to believe, one has to believe. Just like I will give you one example: Nobody knows who is his father; neither it is possible to know one's father by speculation. But there is a process. If you ask your mother, and if she: "This gentleman is your father," you accept the process and you get the perfect knowledge.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: So he has purchased for me one house, fifty-five lakhs worth. But what, no Indian could help me. At two hundred and twenty thousand pounds. So it is equivalent to fifty-five lakhs.

Ambassador: But I'm told that you have fifty-five temples in the west...

Prabhupāda: No, why fifty? More than fifty... In U.S.A. we have got about fifty temples. And Australia, also, we have got five temples. And Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and...

Paramahaṁsa: Perth.

Prabhupāda: Perth. And Darwin.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Professor La Combe: Fourth visit, every year.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Last year also, I came. I installed the Deity.

Professor La Combe: You now come right from Vṛndāvana or...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am coming from Vṛndāvana of course, via Delhi. Then Rome, then Geneva, then Paris. Then I shall go to Frankfurt. And from there I shall go to Sydney, Australia.

Professor La Combe: Oh, this is not the direct way.

Bhagavān: We have a Ratha-yātrā Festival. You have heard of this festival, from Jagannātha Purī.

Professor La Combe: Yes, of course. I have been there.

Bhagavān: We have this festival in very big, in the same scale, in Australia, London, San Francisco, Chicago.

Prabhupāda: Where is that poster? Australia? Yes.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: It is not meant for mass people. Only selected fortunate. My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "If I could make one person to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, then my mission would be successful." It is not for mass person. Only the fortunate they can do. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by introducing saṅkīrtana, even the mass can take part. When there is saṅkīrtana, everyone joins. And by joining in that way, they will become purified.

Amogha: In Sydney, the city council once tried to stop us, legally, from chanting in the streets. First they arrested us two years ago, but then they spent many dollars of tax money to prepare a case for the court, and they didn't even tell us. They had the court session, and the judge ruled that "This Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting in the streets is good. It adds color to the city and is not illegal. Why you are saying this is illegal? This is their right. And it makes the city more colorful."

Prabhupāda: Nice judge. God gave him sense.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: There is a natural tendency to hear. Artificially they stopped. Nitya siddha kṛṣṇa bhakti. Appeals to the heart immediately. Unless he is too much sinful it will appeal immediately.

Amogha: In Sydney there was one teacher in a school, a private school, for rich men's sons, very, very wealthy. And he is the head of general studies and the school chaplain. A Christian. One boy from the school became a devotee, although he still went to the school. And the discussion came up in class about what the Hare Kṛṣṇaś believe. So he invited us to come.

Prabhupāda: The clergyman?

Amogha: Yes, school chaplain, and he liked it so much. I remember he was taking notes, and he was smiling every time one point came up that he liked. So he asked us to come again the next week, and again, and then the next time we went through six classes in one day. For about two months he asked us again and again, and then to show the film. And he was always taking notes. He would say, "What was that again? Part and parcel?"

Prabhupāda: He is sincere.

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So then where is your desire, fulfill it. What you are doing here?

Indian boy: Actually, I've got three friends from work in Sydney, and we started traveling around the country, and we ended up in Perth with no money. So we are here from last four months trying to get a job and save some money and go back to Sydney.

Prabhupāda: So not getting job?

Indian boy: Jobs are very scarce in Perth. We've been trying very hard, but so far, it's no go.

Prabhupāda: So here we have no arrangement. Huh?

Śrutakīrti: No. Here there's no arrangement. In Sydney or Melbourne there would be some facility.

Prabhupāda: New Delhi you were born? How long you have come?

Indian boy: I was just nine months old when we left Delhi.

Morning Walk -- May 13, 1975, Perth:

Jayadharma: You told Madhudviṣa Swami once in Sydney a few years ago that actually you're the biggest cheater because you're stealing away all our māyā.

Prabhupāda: What is that? I am...

Paramahaṁsa: He says that once you told Madhudviṣa Swami that you are the best cheater because you are taking away all our māyā and making us devotees.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. That kind of cheating is very good. (pause) Christ also spoke about nivṛtti-mārga. "Thou shall not kill." Because they were practiced to kill, and still they are practiced to killing. The first nivṛtti, "Thou shall not kill." The same thing, "Thou shall not covet."

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, one boy in Sydney, he has been a devotee for a few years, three or four years, but now he has fallen away because of lusty association, I suppose, or bad association. So is this unwilling or willing, because he has become attracted to women again?

Prabhupāda: That is one of the defects, our society, that women are there, and one falls victim of these women. And it is not possible to keep the society strictly for men. That is also not possible. But actually no woman should live in the temple.

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1975, Perth:

Devotee (1): Just like they follow a few regulative principles, like the basic four: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, and no intoxication. If they follow those four regulative principles and just work for Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: He doesn't follow the four principles?

Devotee (1): Oh, yes. Yes. There's this one devotee in Sydney who works very hard for Kṛṣṇa, but...

Prabhupāda: But does not follow.

Devotee (1): He does not like āratis or things like that. He just likes to work hard all the time.

Śrutakīrti: He follows the principles, but he doesn't go to ārati, maybe he doesn't chant his rounds, but he's working...

Devotee (1): Real hard for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Like Gargamuni. (laughter)

Śrutakīrti: Yes, like that. And his plea is that Kṛṣṇa says...

Prabhupāda: Then he will fall down.

Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: He says he finds it not practical because not everyone who is addicted to drugs can spend six months in a temple with us.

Prabhupāda: They are spending years. They are all European, Americans. They are not Indians. We have got here... You go to Melbourne. We have got big branch. In Sydney we have got. In Europe. They are doing that. It requires training, proper training. Then it will be done.

Guest (1): Well, if there is someone who wouldn't like to perhaps join this religion, but still wants to get treated...

Prabhupāda: This is not religion. This is a culture.

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: For dog race? (laughter)

Kuruśreṣṭha: We've gone there for distributing books before.

Prabhupāda: Anyway... And Australia also, Sydney, oh, they are very fond of dog race. Every man is coming with big big, dog for racing purpose.

Satsvarūpa: It's good gambling.

Prabhupāda: And Europe, the most aristocratic person means he is keeping so many horses and so many dogs. That is aristocracy. They will ride on the horse, and taking their dogs, they will go to the forest and kill some innocent birds. That is their heroic activities. We went to see one palace in France.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, I remember. In the hall they had all pictures of those activities.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Whole Europe became threatened, Napoleon. And there must be some reaction. And when he was under custody he was treated like an.... So where is independence? He had to drink horse urine as reaction of his atrocities. Hitler committed suicide and finished himself. Mussolini was forced to be killed. Gandhi was killed. And they are fighting for independence. You know this Sydney? Sydney? You know why the city is known as Sydney?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Sir Philip Sydney, a great commander, during the fighting time, when he was shot, he asked for water, and the water was not supplied and he died. Now, he was very generous man. He was the commander. Water was brought, and at the same time another soldier was being carried. He was also going to die. He was looking for the water. So immediately he said, "This water give him. Give him," and he died. He was very generous. He knew that "I am going to die. If he can be saved, give him this water." So that Sydney, Sir Philip Sydney, his name. Melbourne, it is also named after great soldier. So where is your independence? If you are thinking independently and doing things independently, then is it not foolishness? Hm? Why don't you answer? You don't want to be foolish? Suppose within the prison walls, if you want to do things independently, is it possible?

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Direct service.

Prabhupāda: Perth.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Perth.

Prabhupāda: From Perth to...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sydney.

Prabhupāda: No, South Africa...?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How many hours? It's about nine hours.

Prabhupāda: Not much. Nearer than India. From India to Australia takes so many hours.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: They have to put big wire screens up to stop people from jumping off.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen.

Harikeśa: Berkeley.

Prabhupāda: Berkeley, yes.

Hari-śauri: Everywhere. Sydney has bridges like that. These big towers like Eiffel Tower in Paris, they have big fences along the top so that no one can...

Prabhupāda: This practice is there in Vedic system. Not Vedic system, (indistinct), fall down. There is technical name. Fall down from the mountain. This is easier than other type of suicide. Because you simply once jump, but as soon as you fall, you forget everything. Suicide itself is very bad. This fall down, serotan (?) it is called.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And if you want to know further, you can write to me.

Dr. Kneupper: Good. I'll take back your blessing to Slippery Rock when I go back there.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and there, so many old friends, you can offer them.

Dr. Kneupper: OK. Dr. Morrison and Dr. Sharma...

Prabhupāda: There is Sydney Weld there, when I went.

Dr. Kneupper: Very good. Is the friend which you were... You were staying with somebody in Butler?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kneupper: Is he still there?

Prabhupāda: No. That friend was one of my friend's son.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gurukṛpa: That is like Australia. That is Australia.

Prabhupāda: Australia?

Gurukṛpa: Yes, the whole country is...

Prabhupāda: Wooden bridge.

Gurukṛpa: Roads like this. Just in Melbourne and Sydney, nice roads. I think I saw better roads in India. I was very surprised.

Prabhupāda: Thing is they do not know engineering. They have no business.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Bali-mardana was the one who brought them, with you

Bali-mardana: And you personally carried the Sydney Deities also.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: It is all by your grace.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Sydney Deity.

Bali-mardana: This is... Balarāma here is the president of Melbourne, and he is also pūjārī.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Bali-mardana: Balarāma dāsa.

Prabhupāda: This is Gaura-Nitāi.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: That I still have to decide. I'm going to ring tomorrow morning and see what the situation is at the consulate.

Prabhupāda: From Delhi you can go to Singapore. From Singapore to Sydney.

Hari-śauri: Yeah. There are direct flights also, that they come, Delhi, Bombay and then straight to Perth and then Sydney.

Prabhupāda: I left from Delhi to Bombay.

Hari-śauri: If you fly from Delhi, they come Delhi, Bombay, Perth, Sydney, like that.

Prabhupāda: Perth. Oh.

Evening Darsana -- May 14, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I have a photograph. Should I bring it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All we had was this Melbourne photo. We don't have the Sydney... We have the Melbourne Deities. Still, it's nice.

Prabhupāda: Melbourne and Sydney, white.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I knew it was Australia.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's about 6:30 now, Śrīla Prabhupāda

Prabhupāda: Have saṅkīrtana.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is the other say here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The other telegram is from Australia.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda, please do not leave us, for without your lotus feet we have no shelter. We are trying to distribute more books. Your eternal servants at Sydney Mandir."

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am willing to stay. After all, it is Kṛṣṇa's desire. (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want kīrtana, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Page Title:Sydney (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:18 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=24, Let=0
No. of Quotes:24